Obama Vies With Kasich to Win Credit for Ohio Revival

John Kasich, governor of Ohio, center, announces his state's choice for presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Tampa. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- More Ohioans have jobs in the
resurgent auto industry because “I refused to turn my back on
communities like this one,” President Barack Obama said in July
in Maumee, near Chrysler Group LLC’s Toledo Jeep factory.

Last week, the state’s Republican Governor John Kasich
claimed credit for rising prosperity. “We are managing our
finances and creating jobs,” Kasich said during a speech at the
Republican National Convention in Tampa. His party’s policies
led to the best job-creation record in the Midwest even in the
face of “headwinds” from Obama, he said.

The economy is the top issue in Ohio, polls show. Which way
the state votes may depend on who gets credit for growth in
employment, said John C. Green, a political scientist at the
University of Akron.

“It’s likely to make an already close and competitive
election even closer and more competitive,” Green said in a
telephone interview.

At stake are Ohio’s 18 electoral votes. The battleground
state of 11.5 million residents put President George W. Bush
over the top for re-election in 2004 and helped elect Obama in
2008. The state is considered a must-win for Romney. No
Republican has been elected president without carrying Ohio.

Slight Advantage

Recent polls have shown Obama with a slight advantage in
Ohio before the national political conventions.

After losing almost 557,000 jobs from 2000-2010, Ohio’s
economy is improving. The jobless rate in the Buckeye State was
7.2 percent in July, the lowest since September 2008 and below
the nationwide 8.3 percent. The 130,600 jobs added in Ohio since
the end of 2010 -- including 37,100 in manufacturing -- were the
fourth-most in the U.S. and the most among Midwestern states,
according to federal data.

Nationwide, Ohio’s improvement in economic health ranks
sixth from the first quarter of 2011 through the first quarter
this year, the most recent data available, based on the
Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States. The barometer reflects
mortgage delinquencies, personal income, tax revenue,
employment, home prices and value of publicly traded companies.

Automaker Bailout

Obama points to his efforts to spur recovery from the worst
contraction since the Great Depression, including the 2009
government bailout of U.S. automakers. He contrasts that with
Romney’s call to let auto companies go bankrupt, and a
“fundamentally different” economic vision.

Sherry Gaunt, 52, credits Obama for saving her job. She is
a material handler at the General Motors Co. auto assembly plant
in Lordstown, east of Akron. Her job is on the third shift,
added in 2010 to make the Chevrolet Cruze.

“If we did not have the help from the government, we would
not be working,” Gaunt said in a telephone interview.

Kasich said Ohio is growing by following policies
championed by Romney, such as cutting taxes, streamlining
regulations and limiting spending.

Donald Downs, 48, said he is backing Romney because he
thinks the economy could do better. He lost his job as a baker
in Columbus in 2009.

“I don’t blame Obama for all the economy situation because
he inherited a lot of it,” Downs said in an interview. “But I
do think that Romney will at least try to put a new face on it,
change things around.”